PAT workers vow to continue their sit-in for days, even months

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Awami Tehrik’a (PAT) workers on Saturday vowed to stage a sit-in at the venue till the party’s goals including a justice based society are achieved, and claimed that they are not facing any difficulties on the ground.The PAT officials seem prepared for a long haul, and have formed four different committees for males as well as females that are further divided into teams who are posted at different locations. These committees are security, rescue, discipline, and mess committee to take care of food and water requirements of the caravan. The girls in the security committee can be identified as they hold heavy wooden sticks in their hands while the rescue committee members wear florescent jackets. “I am proud to be a part of the first team that would protect our leader,” said Misbah, a girl on the security duty, “We would stand with our leader Tahirul Qadri and would not move from our place, even if it takes months,” workers of the PAT said. The workers, who possess a uniform size of sticks in their hands, said that the sticks were just for self-defence.Both male and female, aging differently formed a long human chain on both sides to strictly prohibit the entry of any unwanted person in the ambit. The female workers, who also wielded wooden sticks and party flags, observed in a well-disciplined manner, and majority of them seemed educated, well mannered. A student of bachelor’s grade from Mandi Bahauddin, Syed Qadir Uddin, said that their party chief had advised the workers to remain non-violent and not to damage any public or private property. “We would sit till our chief order us to go back,” he said in an emotional tone, adding that Qadri is better than the existing politicians. He said that about 2,000 to 2,500 students of the collage came for the revolutionary march on their free will, further claiming that majority of the PAT workers belong to the poor and middle class society. To another question, he said that there are about 3,000 volunteers who would facilitate the participants in provision of water, food etc.A property dealer from Lahore, Shehzad Ali, said that the poor have no rights in this land as injustice continues in the society, and the corrupt system requires change. “Though I also voted for PML-N, but after the Model Town incident, I totally changed my mind and see a hope in PAT, and this is why I came here along with my 10-years-old daughter and wife,” he added. In Model Town, he claimed that the police opened a straight fire on 100 people. He also claimed that in Model Town, the PAT workers remained under siege since Aug 3, 2014. A female worker, Rukhsan, who did her post graduation in Economics, expressed the hope that change would come soon and a justice-based society would be formed. “There is no problem for us and we came out for the sake of the whole nation, and not for ourselves,” she maintained.